The Right Place at the Wrong Time
by moonfaerie24
Summary: Rose Weasley was in a bit of a bind, until she quite literally ended up throwing herself into the arms of Scorpius Malfoy. Now she finds herself in over her head in a fake relationship she never expected. But figuring out what's fake and what's real is going to be more of a challenge than she anticipated.
1. A Chance Encounter

Rose Weasley hurried around a corner and paused. Left or right? Left took her out of the castle and into a courtyard. There was a high probability of running into other students, which would potentially be helpful. Right took her deeper into the castle, but was a more direct route to her actual destination, the Ravenclaw common room. The sound of shuffling feet behind her propelled her toward the courtyard, and a more immediate solution.

She quickly scanned the students scattered around, hoping to find a cousin or close friend, but she was out of luck. Weighing her options, she considered "plan two". There were a handful of first and second years scattered around, too young for her plan. A sixth year Hufflepuff girl was strolling across the courtyard. She stored the information in her brain and kept scanning for a boy, ideally close to her own age. There was only one.

Scorpius Malfoy sat alone on a bench, reading some textbook or other. Rose thought it might be their herbology book. Desperately she scanned a second time, hoping to find someone else, anyone else. But there was only him. She eyed the Hufflepuff girl one more time in desperation. The girl was a year older than Rose, and Rose couldn't recall her name, besides, in this particular situation, a Hufflepuff was the worst person to go to for help. Her eyes slid back to Scorpius.

Steeling herself, she stomped over to his bench. He looked up as her shadow crossed over his book, marking his page and setting it down next to him. Before he could ask what she wanted, and before she could change her mind, Rose opened her mouth and managed, "I don't have time right now, so please, _please_ , just play along."

Her eyes were desperate and pleading as she practically threw herself into his lap. A voice from across the courtyard, originating where Rose had just exited, called out, "Rose, there you are!" and Scorpius managed a startled, "Wha-" a moment before Rose's lips crashed over his.

Adrien Cooper, seventh year Hufflepuff, stopped short at the sight in front of him. "Rose, _what_ are you doing? You're with this jerk now? You said you'd give me a chance. Get off of him right now and tell me what's going on."

Rose pulled her lips back from Scorpius', eyes wide in fear, and sighed inside with relief when Scorpius carefully schooled his features from confused to a calm neutral. She cautiously looked back over her should at Adrien, brushing a copper curl behind her ear. She opened her mouth to say something, but her oh-so-brilliant "plan two" had only gotten this far in her head. She didn't know what to say. But apparently, Scorpius did.

"Hey, mind your own business, Cooper. This one's taken, so go find another girl to bother relentlessly."

"Get your hands off of her, she's mine." Cooper said. "I think _you're_ the one bothering her. Rose, should I hex the snot out of him? Get off of him right now and I'll forgive you for getting assaulted by this jerk."

Scorpius raised his eyebrows at Rose after those remarks, as if to say, _What's_ with _this guy?_ And she made an uncomfortable face back at him. Despite their silent exchange, Scorpius didn't miss a beat. He wrapped his arms around Rose, pulling her closer. "I said, this one belongs to me. And if you have a problem with that, then I'd be more than happy to curse you six ways from next Sunday. Are we clear?"

Adrien flushed red with anger and said, "Whatever man. That slag's not worth it anyway." He stalked off, mumbling some more rather impolite things.

Rose looked down at her fellow fifth year in gratitude, her shoulders slumping from relief and her cheeks burning in equal parts rage and embarrassment from Copper's last remark. In five years of going to the same school, she had barely said more than passing words to Scorpius, and now…

"So, you going to sit there all day, Weasley, or what? Don't get me wrong, you're welcome to throw yourself at me as much as you'd like, but try and put a little less force behind the next kiss, huh? I think that one was mostly teeth."

Rose's face turned an even darker red as she scrambled off of his lap. "Look, um…"

Scorpius interrupted her, "Yeah, I get it. Everyone knows Copper's been dogging you for ages. You were trying to shock him into leaving you alone, right? I have to say though, usually these types of situations work out much more smoothly when all parties are informed of the plan in advance."

Once again a wave of relief came over her. He was apparently quick on the uptake, and it had worked to her advantage. "I was a little pressed for time, and I was really desperate. He used to leave me alone after I said no, but then he started waiting for me outside my classes, and following me. He keeps trying to corner me when I'm alone and, I'm so sorry. I'll do anything you want to make it up to you. Transfiguration essay? Study help? I obviously can't bribe you with Prefect privileges, but if you need an errand girl or-"

Scorpius gave her an amused look and interrupted her, "I'll let you know. But I think you may have slightly bigger problems right now than just owing me a favor." He nodded over Rose's shoulder and she turned her head to look. Lorcan and Lysander Scamander, first year twins and close friends of Rose's family, were staring at Rose and Scorpius with mouths hanging open. As soon as her eyes met theirs they ran off, laughing impishly.

"Oh no, they'll spread this to my whole family, not to mention the whole school, faster than apparation. I'll run after them and make them keep quiet… somehow."

She glanced back at Scorpius and saw an amused grin on his face. "Somehow, I don't think that's going to work. Unless you're willing to bully everyone in sight, not to mention Copper, into silence."

Rose shifted uncomfortably as Scorpius continued, "How long, exactly, did it take you to formulate this plan? Now, I'd like to think you came looking for me in particular, since I'm so charming and handsome, but were you just going to throw yourself at any random guy and hope for the best? Not everyone is a perfect gentleman, like me, you know."

Rose's embarrassment grew, and she said, "Well honestly, I was trying to find a cousin or someone to help me, but no one was around, which is crazy, because I swear there's like, a million of them. And then everyone here was basically a first year, except that Hufflepuff girl, but you were sitting here, and…" she faltered. "And now there are going to be tons of rumors about us and I really didn't think this through as well as I usually do. I have no idea how to explain this to everyone without it getting back to Cooper somehow."

"Well, looks like you got yourself out of one bind, and into another." Scorpius replied. "It seems as though you're in sudden need of a pretend boyfriend, specifically, me."

"Oh," Rose tilted her head to think, "that might actually work. I mean, we'd have to plan things out a little more, obviously. But what are the chances I can bribe you into some kind of arrangement, temporarily?"

"Bribe me so you can keep throwing yourself at me? I guess I could consider it. But just to let you know, for future reference, you didn't have to set up that whole bit with Cooper, there are easier ways to ask a bloke out." His crooked grin and sarcastic tone indicated he was highly amused by the whole situation.

 _Well, I've learned one thing about Malfoy today I didn't know before, he's certainly sarcastic,_ Rose thought to herself.

She ignored his last quip and said, "Yes, well, unfortunately you seem to be involved already, like it or not, so, what do you say?"

Rose braced herself for his answer, not sure what scared her more: the thought of him refusing, or the thought of him accepting.

He gathered up his book and his schoolbag, slinging it casually over his shoulder. His tall, thin frame loomed over her, light blonde hair falling into his eyes as he looked down. "Well, why not? I was just thinking life was a bit too boring recently, anyway. And, as you already pointed out, I'm already involved, so, I might as well get some favors out of it. And trust me, I plan on cashing them in."

He walked away, grinning, as if suddenly he had a new toy to play with. Rose stood there for a few seconds more, letting her heart beat slow back to normal, and wondering just what she had gotten herself into.


	2. Finding Help, Sort of

Rose slowly made her way back to the Ravenclaw common room, still not quite believing the situation she was now in. So far, nobody she passed in the halls seemed to be whispering about her, but she had a feeling that would not be the case by breakfast tomorrow. To make matters worse, she had never hammered out a time with Scorpius to settle all the particulars of their new arrangement, meaning classes the next day would be an interesting feat.

Looking up, Rose realized she had already stopped at the top of the spiral staircase and been absently standing in front of the entrance to Ravenclaw tower for several minutes. After she snapped out of her daze and looked at it, the bronze eagle knocker finally asked her a question.

"Where is the division between perception and reality?"

With her mind still dwelling on the next day's breakfast, she hesitated for only a second before replying, "Eggs can't be unscrambled."

The beaked knocker seemed to frown a bit at her wording, but swung open obligingly.

Rose looked around the common room at all the friendly faces who could have helped her in the courtyard, had they been there. Finally, she found the one she wanted.

A beautiful fourth year with strawberry blonde hair made her way over to Rose and immediately asked, "What's wrong? You look positively pale."

"Oh Dominque, I think I'm in a bit over my head right now. Can we talk, somewhere private?"

"My dorm should be empty right now, let's go."

Rose followed her cousin, Dominique Weasley, up to the fourth year girl's dorm. They entered and Rose flopped herself onto Dominque's bed, face first.

"Well, I know that look. What have you done now?"

"You know how Copper has been following me around everywhere, and has been getting progressively creepier? Well I think I managed to put a stop to it, finally." Rose said, rolling over onto her back and staring at the ceiling.

"That sounds like a good thing, so why are you in panic mode?" Dominique asked, eyeing her cousin. "What, exactly, did you do to make him back off?"

"I-sort-of-kind-of-threw-myself-at-Scorpius-Malfoy-and-then-kissed-him." Rose said in a rush, red returning to her cheeks.

"You did WHAT? Merlin, tell me ALL the details, I need to know EVERYTHING."

"Well, Copper was following me around again, and honestly I was getting a little scared, which totally impaired my judgement. I tried to find someone I knew in the courtyard to help fend him off, like James or Albus maybe, but no one was around.

"So I thought, 'Ok, if this guy won't leave me alone, I'll just tell him I'm already taken'. I looked around for a candidate, but the only people even close to my age there were Scorpius and a Hufflepuff girl. I've got to tell you Dom, I seriously considered the girl for a second, but you know how bad I am at lying, so, I thought the easiest lie is the one that's closer to the truth."

"I KNEW you liked him!" Dominique said triumphantly.

"What? I do not."

"Oh please, you practically just said so."

"That's not what I meant! I just meant it would be easier to pretend to have a boyfriend than a girlfriend. And besides, the girl was a Hufflepuff and Cooper might have cornered her later."

"Then what about all those incidents last year?" Dominique asked.

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean." Rose replied, looking away.

"That time when you 'accidentally' bumped into Malfoy and your hair got caught on his button and he detangled it with his hands instead of with a spell?"

"That WAS an accident, and he just wanted to make sure not to break my hair."

"Then what about that time you were late to supper because he spilled his potion and you stayed to help him clean up?"

"I was being friendly, we hadn't learned vanishing spells yet. He needed help."

"Ok, that time you fell asleep on him while studying in the library?"

"I swear, before I nodded off I was sitting next to Albus! I don't know what happened, I just woke up with my head on his shoulder. That was really embarrassing, I can't believe you brought that up!"

Dominique huffed and tried again.

"Well, how about at the end of last year when the whole Slytherin Quidditch team was running laps around the lake, and you were totally ogling him after he took his shirt off?"

"I was not ogling! It's not my fault he was running around topless in front of me. I was just trying to revise outside for end of term exams!"

"Outside, where Malfoy was running around without a shirt on." Dominique cut in.

"Outside, where there's fresh air." Rose retorted. "I can't help seeing what's right in front of my face."

"So you admit that you looked?"

"Well, I mean… ok, so he's not terrible looking…"

"You mean he's absolutely gorgeous."

"Ugh, whatever. Like I said, those were all coincidences." Rose said stubbornly.

"Sure they were. Anyway, so you see Scorpius in the courtyard…" Dominique supplied.

"Right, so, I kinda just stomped over to him, told him to please play along, and, er- threw myself onto his lap and kissed him?" Rose covered her face with her hands.

"And, how was it?"

"Oh, he caught on right away when Copper came out and started yelling."

"Ugh! No, I meant the kiss!" Dominique said.

Rose glared daggers at her beautiful cousin from behind her hands, "quick."

"Laaaame. Continue."

"Anyway, like I was saying, Malfoy caught on right away, and told Copper I was dating him, and to bugger off. Cooper didn't take it too well, but he left. Then I turned around to find that Lorcan and Lysander had seen the whole thing. They ran off to who knows where, so I'm sure this will be all over school by tomorrow.

"In a fit of desperation Malfoy and I agreed to pretend we were dating, and then he left. I came back here and told you, but you can't tell anyone Dom, I mean it. My parents might both be Gryffindors, but it took all the courage I had to go up to Malfoy. I can't deal with Cooper popping up everywhere again."

Rose looked at her cousin expectantly.

Dominique sighed and said, "Yes, I see your point. Honestly, Cooper's stalking was getting to the point where you should have gone to a teacher. But, now that you're in this, whatever this is, with Scorpius, I guess that works just as well. Just promise me you'll keep me up to date on what's going on, and I'll help you in any way I can. You know that with the two of us planning together we're practically guaranteed to figure things out."

Rose sat up in the bed and pulled Dominique into a crushing hug. "Thank you. I promise I'll try not to let this get out of hand. But, I think I'm going to need your help once the rest of the family finds out about my 'new boyfriend'. You know how nosy everyone is. Lily is going to FREAK out, and who knows what Albus will do, not to mention Hugo."

"Don't worry, I'll help you out all I can. Although, seeing as how you're now 'dating' the hottest guy in school, I'm going to do my best to make sure things work out for the happy couple." Dominique winked at Rose.

"We're not a couple though," Rose protested.

"We'll just see about that. You may not admit it, even to me, but you SO like him. I'm doing my best to make sure this sticks. For your own good, of course." Dominique replied.

Rose fell back onto the bed and pulled Dom's pillow over her face.


	3. The Morning After

The next morning Rose woke up feeling surprisingly refreshed. For a brief moment she marveled at the weight that seemed to be lifted off her shoulders at the thought of no longer worrying about Cooper.

And then she remembered what she had done to get Cooper to leave her alone.

She groaned and rolled out of bed. After a quick shower to calm her nerves, she got dressed and headed to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Rose sat at her usual place at the Ravenclaw table. Although it was called that, these days, people from different houses frequently mixed things up and sat with friends at any table. Rose herself spent a great deal of time at the Gryffindor table with her extended family, and it was not uncommon for them to come and sit by her and Dominique as well.

Dominique, incidentally, was already seated and looking expectantly at the Gryffindor table. As soon as Rose sat down, a sizable group detached themselves from across the Hall and made their way towards her. Lily Potter, in particular, plopped down right next to Rose and immediately began to talk.

"Rose, WHAT is this I heard about you and Scorpius Malfoy snogging in the courtyard yesterday? I KNOW you wouldn't ever do that without telling us first, right?"

Her eyes were opened wide in anticipation, like Dominique's had been the night before. James and Hugo plopped themselves down next to Dominique, while Albus sat on Rose's other side. Five sets of eyes watched Rose for an answer.

"We were NOT snogging, no matter what Lorcan or Lysander says. But we might have kissed…?" Rose shrugged her shoulders, trying and failing to pretend it was no big deal.

"I cannot believe you didn't tell me first! How long has this been going on?" Lily asked.

At the same time, James rolled his eyes and Hugo mimed retching into his cereal bowl.

"Well, it's sort of a new development?" Rose supplied. She glanced at Dominique for reassurance, only to find Dom staring at something behind her. Rose turned her head just in time to see what was making Dominique stare. Scorpius Malfoy had just entered the Great Hall, and was making his way over.

Smooth as silk, Scorpius inserted himself between Albus and Rose, snaking an arm around her shoulder.

"So, I take it you told 'the family'?" he asked, giving her a quick kiss on the temple.

Lily's mouth dropped open, then promptly closed. "Yes, Rose was just informing us of this, _new development_. How new, exactly, is it?"

"Well, you know how bothersome Adrien Cooper has been to Rose lately. I saw him badgering her yesterday and put a stop to it. Then Rose and I got to talking, and there you have it. Can you pass the bacon?"

Scorpius reached across to James, who handed over a platter of bacon.

Rose spent the rest of the meal in almost stunned silence, with only the occasional "hmm" and "uh-huh" as Scorpius continued to chat amicably with her family.

Eventually, everyone was just about finished eating. Lily got up and whispered, "Nice job!" in Rose's ear, before skipping away. Rose and Scorpius got up as well, destined for the same Potions class. Scorpius grabbed both their bags and her hand before Rose had even registered what was happening.

Holding hands, they exited the Great Hall and headed down to the dungeons.

Once they were out of sight, Rose looked down and their interlocked hands.

"You can let go now, they can't see us anymore" she said.

"I think I'd better hold on. Your family aren't the only ones in school with eyes" he replied.

"Oh, right." Rose felt the heat rising in her cheeks again, but didn't let go of his hand. Breakfast had gone surprisingly well, and Scorpius had come up with a fairly plausible explanation for their new-found romance. It was even almost true. For the first time, Rose was thinking they might just be able to pull this whole thing off.

Once they arrived in potions, Scorpius set down both of their bags and took the stool next to Rose's.

"I usually sit next to Albus" she said, looking at where she normally sat.

"He'll just have to make do with McGrady," Scorpius said, indicating his usual seatmate. "I'm sure they'll live."

Rose shot him a skeptical look.

"We _are_ dating right now, you know. It's not weird that I'm sitting with you" he said. "Haven't you ever sat next to a previous boyfriend? Or have they all been in different years than you?"

Rose was beginning to think that a red face was going to be her new default.

"I've… not, um, I mean, there hasn't been… er-" she took a steadying breath and continued. "I haven't dated anyone before."

Scorpius' eyebrows raised a fraction of an inch before his face broke into a lopsided grin. "Oh this is going to be MUCH more fun than I originally thought."

"Shut up, not everyone's like you" Rose said, defensively.

Scorpius grinned even wider, "No, they're not."

Albus came in to class a short time later and very casually made his was over to McGrady's table.

Rose tensed a fraction, but her shoulders eased as Scorpius calmly laced his fingers with hers under the desk. The feel of his hand in hers was oddly reassuring, and they kept their hands together until the lesson started, and they had to let go in order to brew their potions.

By the end of class, Rose had almost forgotten she had been nervous at the start. Scorpius was a good partner. Once they got to work, she found it almost easy to hold a casual conversation with him. Just a few days ago she had thought Scorpius was a bit callous and vain, but she was starting to see that he was actually pretty easy going. Once they had turned in their flasks it felt almost comfortable when he took her hand again and led her away from the dungeons.

O.W.L. students had a number of breaks throughout the day, and coincidentally, almost all of Rose and Scorpius' classes were the same. They had a bit of a gap between Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts, so Rose didn't pay too much attention to where Scorpius was leading her, other than to note that the further they went, the less people seemed to be around.

When they were finally alone in an unused classroom Scorpius let go of Rose's hand and sat on top of one of the empty desks.

"I figured you would want to talk in private" he said.

Rose was instantly flooded with relief. She had meant to talk to him about their arrangement as soon as she had a decent chance, and he had made one just for her.

"Yes, of course. I just want to make sure we're clear with what we're getting into here. I know you're doing me a huge favor, and you're doing a much better job so far than I am. We should try and figure out how long we want to keep this up, and what I owe you for it. Plus, we need to arrange plausible seeming dates and make sure we have our stories straight. That was a brilliant story at breakfast, by the way."

"Yes well, the thing about lying is, it's always easier to tell the lie that's closest to the truth" he said.

Rose recalled saying something almost identical to Dominique the night before. "You have a lot of experience lying, then?" she teased.

"You could say that" he replied. His eyes seemed to burn into her as he added, "After all, Slytherins do whatever it takes to get what they want."

Rose shuddered a bit at the intensity of his gaze. She mentally berated her heart for racing.

"As for the rest," he continued, a lopsided grin returning to his face, "unless you think Cooper's going to give up on you after a single day, I'd say we're going to have to keep this up for a while."


	4. Hogsmeade, Part 1

For the rest of the week Scorpius managed to sit next to Rose in all of their shared classes, and even managed to sneak himself into her library study time. The whispers died down as the sight of the two of them together started to become normal, and Rose's family, as well, seemed to take it in stride that Scorpius was always around when they wanted to talk to Rose.

Rose was still a bit surprised at how casually Scorpius was able to converse with her extended family, especially Albus. She and Albus were in the same year, so they had been very close since childhood. Rose knew that, unlike many of their other family members, Albus tended to keep his opinions to himself, and reserve judgements until after careful consideration.

But Albus and Scorpius seemed to get along surprisingly well, to the point where Rose suspected they may have already been casual friends before she began "dating" Scorpius.

"Well, that sounds like it's going to be interesting" Scorpius said to Rose after all of her friends and family left them alone in the library.

Rose looked up from her Care of Magical Creatures book and realized she had been tuning out the conversation Scorpius had just finished having. Out of all of her classes, Care of Magical Creatures was the one she didn't share with Scorpius. She had discovered earlier in the week that he had Arithmancy at that time instead.

Because she wasn't studying in tandem with Scorpius for this particular subject, she hadn't been paying attention to any of the exchange which had just taken place.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't listening, what's going on?" Rose asked.

"I told James we were going to go to the Halloween Party he's throwing. He was trying to invite me to hang out at Hogsmeade, but obviously I told him you had already reserved that day for a date."

"A what? I was going to go shopping with Dominuque to buy a costume." Rose replied.

"Yes, and I helpfully offered to replace her so we could spend some 'quality time' together. She seemed quite agreeable about the whole thing."

 _She would_ , Rose thought to herself.

"Oh, well I guess that makes sense. We have to go on a few dates in order to be 'dating.'"

"Exactly. So, I will see you bright and early tomorrow. I'll tell you right now though, I get final say on your costume, so the less material, the better."

Rose's face took on it's now familiar shade of red. "We'll see about that."

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Saturday morning dawned slightly brisk. Students were gathering in the Courtyard, getting ready to make their way into Hogsmeade.

Rose spotted Scorpius easily, his height and light blond hair stood out in the crowd. She walked over to where he was waiting. He smiled at the sight of her and grabbed her hand, a gesture that still made her heart race a bit, but was slowly becoming comfortable.

"I figured we could head to Gladrags first and then make our way to Madam Puddifoot's." Scorpius said.

The mention of Madam Puddifoot's, make-out-capital-of-Hogsmeade, made Rose look up at Scorpius in a panic. "You want to go to Madam Puddifoot's? Isn't that place a little… pink… for your tastes?" Rose said uncomfortably.

"It is, but you should have seen your face. We can go to the Three Broomsticks, Butterbeer's on me. After all, we _are_ on a date." The lopsided grin that Rose was beginning to think of as "Scorpius' amused-at-Rose's-expense face" was firmly in place.

"Yes, ha-ha. You seem to get a lot of entertainment out of messing with me," she said.

"See, we're getting to know each other better already!" he replied.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Entering Gladrags, Rose and Scorpius began to browse various Halloween costumes.

"So, if you get to choose my costume," she asked him, absently picking up a plush hippogriff with bat wings instead of eagle wings, "does that mean I get to choose yours, too?"

"You wish" he said jokingly. "I'm finding you the skimpiest outfit here and then I'll dress to compliment. For example, here's a 'pillowcase dress'. You can go as a house-elf, and I'll just wear my regular clothes and go as your master. It's perfect."

Rose laughed despite herself, and hit him over the head playfully with the hippogriff. "No. Definitely pass. Try again."

Scorpius made a "tragically wounded" face at Rose, which she rolled her eyes at.

"Fine, here we go." Scorpius said, pulling out two more costumes. "You be a racy mediwitch, and I'll dress as a healer." He held up two costumes side by side. The male healer costume consisted of fairly regular looking healer's robes, but the mediwitch outfit stopped much higher up on the thigh than Rose would be comfortable with ever wearing in public.

"I'd rather be the healer, thanks" Rose said.

"I knew that, I was just teasing you." Scorpius replied in a slightly serious tone, surprising her.

"You knew that I wouldn't want to wear the short skirt, or that I want to be a healer?" she asked.

"Both" he said simply.

"How-" she began to ask, but Scorpius cut her off.

"It's not exactly hard to tell. You're always trying to take care of everyone. And you're taking all the required O.W.L.s for it, plus Care of Magical Creatures as an extracurricular. And you were the only person to notice when I got sick last December. You even forced some Pepperup Potion on me. Albus had been sick and you were bullying him into taking it too."

Rose vaguely recalled the incident. She had been concerned about Albus being able to make it through the day without the potion, so she decided to carry it around in case he needed it. When he started falling asleep during Charms she had forced a dose on him.

Albus had been her third family member and fifth friend to catch a cold in a two week period, so Rose had gotten pretty good at recognizing the signs. When she had noticed after class that Scorpius' eyes were a bit glassy and his cheeks slightly flushed red, she had looked at his ears. No steam was coming out, meaning the flush was probably caused by a fever, and not by the warming potion. The boy had still brought his Quidditch gear to class, and by all accounts looked like he was about to go practice.

Rose had marched right over to him, still in 'nurture mode', and thrust the flask of Pepperup Potion under his nose. "Drink it" she had said, "I don't want to feel guilty when you fall off your broom and I could have stopped it."

He had given her a searching look and seemed to debate with himself. But eventually he took the flask, and a dose of potion, before leaving with a short, "thanks."

"You figured it out just from that?" she asked him, coming back from the past to the present in her mind.

"Why? Were you trying to hide it?" he asked.

"No, I just, didn't think you paid that much attention to me" she said.

He grinned at her again, and went back to looking at costumes. Scorpius pulled out a "sexy Kneazle" outfit and said, "You _have_ to try this one on."

Rose snorted and kept browsing. She found that she was actually having fun hanging out with Scorpius, and wasn't sure what to think about it. Was he acting differently towards her because they were pretending to date, or was he just naturally nice to be around? How much was real and how much was for show? They weren't exactly the only students shopping for outfits in Gladrags, maybe it was all just a front.

Eventually, Rose and Scorpius came to a compromise about the costumes. He insisted on matching, and that he had promised Dominique he would make her get something that "looked good". She insisted that her costume had to adequately cover her body. They settled on outfits as 1920's muggles. Scorpius bought a pinstriped suit with a hat that should have looked ridiculous, but somehow just emphasized how handsome he was. And Rose got a flapper dress that showed off her figure, but went down to her knees.

After purchasing their respective costumes, they started to make their way through the chill air over to the Three Broomsticks.


	5. Hogsmeade, Part 2

They entered the Three Broomsticks together, and found a small table near a corner. Scorpius ordered them two Butterbeers, and even paid like he said he would. Rose tried to offer up her share, but he insisted.

"Should we try and find some friends to hang out with the rest of the time we're here?" Rose asked.

"No, I don't think so" Scorpius replied. "If we were on a real date, I'd be keeping you all to myself, so that's exactly what I'm going to do."

"Oh" Rose said, suddenly aware of how close they were sitting. "Have you had many of those, then?"

"Dates? Here and there, but nothing serious. Why? Suddenly interested in my life story?" He winked at her.

"Well, you seem to know much more about me than I know about you. I just thought I'd try and get to know you a little better. For example, there's a weird vibe between you and Albus, tell me about that."

"'Weird vibe' is a strange way to describe a friendship, but sure. We became friends in second year. He was being bullied by some jerks because of who his father is, and I swooped in and saved him. We've been friendly-ish ever since."

Something about his tone made Rose question his story. " _Albus_ was being bullied, and then you helped him?"

"Yeah, or the other way around. Anyway, we're not best mates or anything, but he's a good guy."

Scorpius didn't quite look at Rose when he said that.

 _The other way around?_ she thought _. He's embarrassed to admit he used to be bullied. Apparently there are a lot of things to learn about Scorpius Malfoy._

"What about you?" he asked. "How long have you wanted to be a healer?"

"Almost as long as I can remember. When I was little my Uncle Charlie was supposed to be keeping an eye on me, but I fell off the broom I was riding and broke my arm. When I got to a healer, she waved her wand and the pain was gone and bone was mended in a matter of seconds. I was mesmerized, and I've wanted to be a healer ever since."

Rose looked up to see Scorpius smiling at her. Not his lopsided grin, which, admittedly, was devilishly handsome, but a real, warm, smile. Her heart almost stopped at the sight. He was practically radiating, and her heart restarted with a fervor.

"And you?" she asked. "What are you going to do after school is over?"

Rose found she was actually interested in the answer, and in learning more about Scorpius in general.

"Do? I won't have to _do_ anything. I'm quite wealthy, you know" he replied. "I'm joking, of course. Well, not about the wealthy thing, that's true." He winked at her.

Rose rolled her eyes.

"Actually though, it does take a bit of upkeep to maintain the family money, or else it would all disappear after a few generations. My father actually owns a few charities and manages donations on behalf of the estate, but I want to increase our investment return so we can do some real good for other wizards.

"Obviously our family name isn't in the best standing right now, but I really think I'm in a position to help people. We could help fund research at St. Mungo's, or start scholarship programs for muggle-born students, or spread awareness about mistreated magical beings.

"You just have to play the odds right. It's actually kind of fun, if you look at the way the market fluctuates, and at the patterns behind the numbers, then you can predict the way-" he stopped suddenly. "And I'm rambling right now, I'm sorry."

Rose thought she saw a faint blush rise on _his_ cheeks for a change, but the dim lighting made it hard to tell. What she _could_ tell was that she'd just seen a side of Scorpius Malfoy that she had never seen before, and it was surprisingly nice.

"Wow Malfoy," she said, "That was actually kind of cool to hear about."

"Scorpius" he said leaning slightly forward.

"What?"

"You should call me Scorpius, not Malfoy. Okay… Rose?"

Hearing her name come out of his mouth in such a serious tone sent unbidden shivers down her spine.

"Okay, Scorpius."

"Good" he said, leaning closer still. Rose could practically count his eyelashes, but she didn't back away.

"Close your eyes" he whispered. His face was dangerously close to her own, and she could feel his breath in the air between them.

Almost involuntarily, her eyes slid shut.

 _What am I doing? What is_ he _doing?_ Her mind was racing and her heart was pounding.

Gently, almost feather light at first, she felt his lips brush her own. Her mind turned to static fuzz as he kissed her again, still gently, but more solidly. Her lips moved on their own and she found herself kissing him back.

He slid a hand up into her hair and pulled her closer, tilting his head the opposite way to kiss her again more deeply.

Rose got caught up in the rhythm of his kisses. She felt like she was on fire where he was touching her. Warmth was spreading from her hair down her neck and she lost track of herself as his other hand slid around her back and started a new fire spreading to meet the first.

Her own arms had wrapped around Scorpius, holding on to him tighter whenever the pressure of his form on hers eased.

There was a scraping sound, as if someone had gotten up in a hurry. Stomping feet seemed to fade into the distance as the front door opened and shut.

And then, as suddenly as it had started, it was over.

Scorpius pulled back and said, "He's gone now."

Rose was in a daze. She had never had a boyfriend before, but she had kissed a boy at the beginning of her fourth year, and it was _nothing_ like that.

"Who's gone?" she breathed, still recovering from the kiss.

"Cooper. He was sitting over there glaring daggers at us, so…"

Rose was suddenly mortified. This was all pretend. Of course. She had somehow gotten so wrapped up in hearing about a new side of Scorpius that she had lost sight of what they were doing together.

"Oh, right, yeah." Rose knew her face was burning red, and just hoped Scorpius couldn't tell how much. She was just about ready to die of embarrassment when Scorpius reached over and pulled her closer to his side, arm hanging casually over her shoulder.

He nonchalantly drank some more of his Butterbeer, and Rose wondered, not for the first time, just what in the world she had gotten herself into.


	6. A New Discovery

Rose felt herself being tugged to the side as soon as she entered the Ranvenclaw common room after her "date". It was Dominique, pulling her over to a private corner.

"Tell me everything, and don't skip out on the details. I, along with half the school I might add, saw that little show you put on in the Three Broomsticks. Hugo was apparently thoroughly disgusted and made a big deal of leaving, so good job."

Dominique was looking expectantly at Rose, a big and devious smile on her face.

"Oh Dom, I'm so embarrassed. I don't know what came over me. I was actually having a good time with Scorpius. I forgot for a minute it was all pretend. And then he stopped kissing me and I felt like the biggest idiot in the world. _Of course_ he only did that because Cooper was there."

"Was he? He must have been on the other side where I couldn't see, being a creeper." Dominique said, making a face.

"I don't know what came over me," Rose continued, "I just got so caught up somehow. He's actually more fun to hang out with than I thought he would be and I just-"

"Snogged his face off in front of half the school?" Dominique supplied.

"Oh, shut up."

"No way, I'm determined to turn this sham into the real deal. And if you 'forgot' you were only dating him for pretend, then that just means you want to date him for real."

"He probably wouldn't even be interested in dating me anyway," Rose said, "so there's no point thinking about it."

But Rose _was_ thinking about it. She was thinking about the tickle of his voice whispering in her ear, the way his hands felt running through her hair, the way his lips moved over hers, and the beating of her heart when he pulled her close.

"So you say," Dominique replied, "but I know you better than that. Now, tell me what costume you ended up getting, and I'll make sure you look so good in it he won't be able to take his eyes off you the whole party next Sunday."

Dominique looked at the bag Rose was still holding that contained her newly purchased costume. "Please tell me he didn't let you buy a frumpy costume."

Rose smiled a bit, thinking about their trip to Gladrags. "No, not especially" she replied.

She handed the bag over to her cousin, who promptly looked inside. An impish grin spread over Dominique's face.

"Oh, I can _definitely_ work with this."

Rose went to bed that night trying her best to banish the thought of Scorpius Malfoy from her brain, and utterly failing.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

In the way of things when someone is anticipating an event, Rose's week seemed to drag by. Every casual gesture from Scorpius set her brain turning, and she found herself thinking about him, and his motives, even when he wasn't around.

He was certainly putting on a good show of "going out" with her. Was he really just doing it for amusement and to kill time, like he claimed? He definitely took pleasure in teasing Rose and watching her fumbling reactions. He would casually touch her whenever he got the chance, holding her hand, or brushing her hair behind her ear, or resting his thigh lightly against hers when they sat next to each other.

He would sit with her and her friends during some meals, and pull her over to meet his own friends at other meals. In either situation, he seemed perfectly comfortable, and Rose felt a bit like a fish out of water. But his friends, mostly Slytherins though they may be, were surprisingly nice, and none of them seemed to overtly object to the presence of a "half-blood" at their table.

Perhaps, though, Scorpius had his own reasons for their charade. Rose couldn't for the life of her think of what he might be getting out of their little bargain. She had told him she would owe him, and he liked teasing her about the ways in which he might "collect" his favors (doing his homework for the rest of their time at Hogwarts, switching places with him if he ever managed to get detention, giving him a full body massage after Quidditch practice, getting him a signed picture of her uncle so he could stick it on his wall at home and see how his parents reacted, and so on). But Rose couldn't help but think she really didn't have much to offer him that he couldn't manage to get easily enough on his own.

If that were the case, then why _was_ he playing along with her? As nice as she'd come to think Scorpius was, she thought he must have a reason other than simply the kindness of his heart. But if he did, she couldn't fathom it.

On Wednesday, Scorpius told her he would be going to Quidditch practice in the afternoon instead of with her to the Library.

"When is your first game?" she asked.

"Not until November 9th, but we're all very determined this year after last year's upset" he replied.

"Upset, ha! You mean last year's glorious victory for the Noble House of Ravenclaw." She grinned up at him.

"Yes, that" he drawled. "I didn't peg you as being very interested in Quidditch" he continued, "You don't play."

"I play sometimes with my family back home, but I'm afraid I inherited my mother's skills with a broom." Rose said. "But that doesn't mean I don't have my father's enthusiasm for the sport. We cheer and cry together every season when the Cannons get robbed of their victories."

"The Chudley Cannons? Really? Are you sure you're not secretly a Gryffindor, because that's a pretty brave choice of a favorite team" he teased.

Rose laughed. "Well it certainly drives Aunt Ginny crazy. She rolls her eyes at us whenever we show up to Sunday dinner in bright orange. She used to play for the Harpies, you know."

"1999 to 2003. She had the most assists per game in the whole league in 2002 and was the second youngest player in the last 100 years to join the Harpies after 16 year old Gillian Baines in 1923 lied and said she was of age when they signed her" Scorpius said.

Rose stared at him open mouthed.

There was a faint bit of color on Scorpius' cheeks that she was sure wasn't just a trick of the light this time.

"Well," Rose managed finally, "well, well, well. I wouldn't have pegged you as a Harpies fan."

"What?" Scorpius replied, not quite looking at her. "They wear green. It _is_ my favorite color, you know." He held up his silver-and-green tie as if to prove his point.

Rose giggled at him and said, "Well, I think it's a safe bet to say you'd rather have my aunt's autographed picture hanging on you wall than my uncle's."

"Ha," Scorpius replied, "I don't need pictures. Once I get in all friendly-like with James and Albus at the party they'll have no choice but to invite me home over the holidays and I'll spend all my time with the real deal. I'll no longer be needing your services at that time, by the way."

He kept up his lofty tone until he finished talking, but as soon as he was done he burst out laughing and Rose couldn't help but join in.

"But," she gasped through her laughter, "you're already friends with Albus!"

"Hush," he said, getting himself under control, "stop being so smart all the time."

"Can't-" she said, still giggling "I'm a Ravenclaw!"

This set them both off again, and Rose realized she was going to miss his easy sarcasm when their—whatever they had—really did come to an end.


	7. Halloween, Part 1

Late on Sunday afternoon Rose was pacing around the fourth year girl's dorm. Dominique was supposed to be helping her get ready for James' party, but her beautiful cousin was nowhere to be found.

Finally, sporting a huge grin, Dominique entered her dorm and made her way over to Rose.

"Sorry, sorry, I know I'm a bit late, but I needed Lily's input on the color changing" she said.

"Color changing... right" Rose said, eyeing her cousin skeptically.

"For your costume? You weren't seriously going to wear that shade of red with your hair color, were you?" Before Rose could even open her mouth to speak Dominique was already continuing, "No, of course you weren't. Hence the color changing. Trust me, this will be _much_ better. Now take all that off, we've got a lot of work to do."

Rose saw her newly colored flapper dress and paled. _I hope nobody gets the wrong impression_ , she thought to herself as she pulled it over her head.

An hour and a half later, with copious amounts of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion on her head and makeup expertly done by Dominique, Rose and her cousin were making their way to the Room of Requirement.

Dominique was dressed up as a ghost, and had somehow managed to spell herself into a pale translucence. Rose felt slightly uncomfortable watching the hallways pass by through her cousin, and tried to keep her eyes to her front.

It was immediately clear when they were getting close based on the noise levels alone. This party wasn't exactly "private". In fact, the Room of Requirement, while currently huge, was also currently only closed in on three sides. An entire wall face was left open so that students could easily find their way in.

In true Room of Requirement style, the decorations were amazing. Cobwebs hung around the room, and jack-o-lanterns floated around providing illumination. Tables were set up with pumpkin juice and pumpkin pie, as well as various candies and refreshments. A big space near the center of the room seemed to be set aside for dancing and mingling, while numerous comfy-looking chairs and couches were scattered around to accommodate those who needed a rest.

Rose tried to pretend she wasn't scanning the crowd for Scorpius, but knew Dominique could see right through her, which, she supposed, was a bit ironic at the moment.

As if her gaze was drawn to his, Rose locked eyes with Scorpius from across the room. Without looking away from her, he excused himself from the group he'd been talking to, and made a bee line over to her.

He looked just as dashing in his pinstriped suit and hat as Rose had imagined he would. The stripes made him seem even taller than normal, and the cut of the suit was a perfect fit on him.

Rose lost track of everything going on around her as he approached, never breaking eye contact.

"You're wearing green" he said, getting to her at last.

"Yeah, we changed it…" Rose said, her mind going fuzzy.

"Because I told you green was my favorite color?" he teased.

"What? No." Rose replied, snapping out of her daze at his jesting. "Because, my hair…" she began, realizing she wasn't really sure the exact reasoning behind Dominique and Lily's color changing operation.

 _Because green is the Slytherin color, and they wanted everyone to see me wear it next to him,_ she thought.

"Sure it was" he said. "Well, whatever the reason, you look beautiful."

Rose felt the beginning of a blush creeping up her face.

"And now," he continued "I'm going to dance with the most gorgeous girl in the room." He grabbed her hand and led her away.

"Hello Scorpius, nice to see you too. Why no, Rose, I don't mind if you leave me all on my own, go have fun." Dominique said to the empty air with a grin as Rose was being pulled away. She wondered for a second if she was so see-through that no one would even notice her all night. She wasn't sure Scorpius had even registered her standing next to her cousin.

But she was reassured a moment later when a rather handsome Hufflepuff sixth year dressed as a vampire asked her to dance.

Meanwhile, Rose was very aware of the way her body was pressed against Scorpius'. She knew she should try and say hello to James, and thank Lily for helping Dominique with her dress, and probably find Albus and Hugo to say hello for good measure, but her mind was filling up with pleasant fuzziness again.

She wasn't sure how long had passed when Scorpius finally suggested they get some drinks, but she immediately felt cold and out of place when they stopped dancing. It was as if she had been snuggled inside a warm blanket, only to have it swiftly pulled off.

Drink in hand, a little of that pleasant sensation came back to her as Scorpius leaned over to whisper in her ear.

"You know, I think it would be rather suspicious of us if I didn't whisk you off to an abandoned classroom somewhere. No one would ever believe we're really together if we stayed here all night with you looking so good."

Shivers ran down her spine, and the desire to disappear into an empty classroom with him was making her heart race.

"Well, if you say so" she said, trying to keep the sound of her pounding heart out of her ears. _Stop being an idiot!_ she chided herself.

Grinning that devilishly handsome grin of his, Scorpius scooped Rose off of her feet and started walking.

"Hey! Woah! Everyone's staring at us, put me down!" Rose said, suddenly acutely aware of the number of eyes on them.

"No way. That's the whole point" he replied jovially, winking at someone on his way out.

He kept carrying her through the hallways, past the giggles of wandering students. Rose was no longer sure what was making her redder, being pressed up against Scorpius, or how embarrassed she was being carried about like a princess.

They reached their destination and he set her gently down on an open table.

"Well, that certainly caused a scene" she said, covering her face with her one free hand.

Scorpius gently peeled her hand away with his own. "Yes, I know. Like I said, that was the point. You really do look amazing tonight, you know. If I was dating you for real there's no way I wouldn't find an excuse to sneak off with you. Although, in this case, I'll admit I went with a public spectacle just to see how close to your hair color I could make your face."

"Ugh, I could kill you!" Rose said, but there was no heat behind her words. She was learning to live with Scorpius' idea of fun. Apparently it wasn't a good day for him until a public display of affection had rendered her a tomato.

Rose looked down stupidly at the glass she was still holding, and drank it all down in one gulp. She set the glass next to her on the table and looked up at Scorpius, who had raised his eyebrows.

"Well," she said, "what are we meant to do now?"

"Oh I'm sure we can think of something" he said, leaning in closer to her.

Rose went very still as Scorpius brought his hand gently to her face.

And suddenly his hand was gone and he had leaned back.

"You had an eyelash on your check" he said, face the picture of innocence.

"Eyelash" she repeated, "right."

"Have I ever told you how bad you are at lying?" he asked her, his tone very purposefully casual. "You show everything on your face."

"Sorry, it's not a hobby of mine to deceive people" she said, wondering what he'd seen in her face just then.

"I mention it because I'm sure someone will ask you later what happened after I carried you away. I'm sure you don't want to fumble your way through that and ruin everything."

"No, not really" Rose said. She had an idea she knew where he was going with this line of thought, and she berated herself for wanting very badly for him to continue.

"I have an idea to take care of that" he said leaning in once again. But this time there was no laughter in his eyes. He looked at her with an intensity that brought the warm fuzzies back to her brain.

"What if, you just don't lie?" he continued, slowly, agonizingly, inching forward.

"That could work" Rose breathed, all of her concentration on the shrinking space between them.

"Alright then" he said.

And then his lips were on hers, and Rose lost track of everything else.


	8. Haloween, Part 2 and After

Rose's mind was occupying two planes of reality. One version of her mind raced with information and sought answers to questions she could barely contemplate, the most prominent of which was, "why?"

The other version of her mind was blissfully blank and completely absorbed in the fact that Scorpius Malfoy was kissing her, and she liked it.

Racing and stalling, her brain fazed in and out of existence, a contradiction her thinking half made carful note of, and her feeling half carefully ignored.

Part of her wanted to stop, to figure out what they were even doing. Scorpius' justification of Rose being a terrible liar, while accurate, was clearly an excuse. Her mind circled back to the ever-present "why" in the grander mystery of Scorpius Malfoy.

Another part of her fought to push her rational and racing mind aside. To succumb to the intoxicating sensation of Scorpius' body pressed into hers, the feel of his hands moving up her back, the taste of his mouth on her tongue.

Her rational mind was struggling to take over when his mouth left hers. She was in a new kind of daze for half a second, not sure _what_ to think, when he found his way to her neck, and nibbled.

That was the point where rational Rose knew she had lost the fight, and blissful oblivion took over.

She didn't know when they decided to leave and walk her back to her common room, but she remembered stopping multiple times along the way to be pressed up against a wall and kissed again. Fuzzy-brain Rose was wildly happy, and getting better and better at convincing her other self that any and all rationalizations and explanations could wait until later.

The brass eagle knocker clicked it's beak at them in annoyance when they arrived, giggling.

"Why does a niffler seek that which shines?" the knocker asked.

Rose saw Scorpius glance at her, but if her brain started working now, it would overwhelm her. He leaned in to kiss her gently one more time, before turning to the knocker and saying, "because those in the dark long for what's bright."

The door swung open. Scorpius leaned in to Rose's ear and whispered "goodnight" before disappearing down the stairs.

Rose stared after him for a few seconds before her daze finally broke. Reasonable Rose emerged at last as she entered the common room and the door closed behind her.

"Oh dear, what have I done?"

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Almost two hours later Dominique, still translucent, came back to find Rose sitting at a work desk in the corner of the common room, staring into space.

"You certainly seemed to be having a good time earlier" Dominique teased.

Rose looked up at her and Dominique sat down at the table. "Oh no, I know that look. That's the look you get when you're overthinking something. What are you making more complicated than it needs to b- Merlin's pants Rose! You have a GIANT hickey on your neck. Tell me _everything_ that happened tonight."

Rose opened her mouth to speak, then paused. "I'm sorry. I'm in a crisis here, and I really want your advice, but I _cannot_ talk to you while you're all see-through." Rose gave a little laugh, glad she still had the brain capacity for humor. "It's been freaking me out since before. Fix that first, and then it's going to be long night."

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

"And at some point I just thought, screw it, and just gave in to what I wanted, but of course I shouldn't have, and just because _I_ wanted it to be real doesn't mean _he's_ not just messing around with me, but I really don't want him to be, but if he's not messing around then what IS he doing, and everything's a mess, and tomorrow's Monday, and what do I do?"

"Wow, okay. Well, what do you want to do?" Dominique asked.

"Crawl under a rock and never come out again?" Rose ventured.

"No. I will not have a rock-hermit-person for a cousin."

"Why not? I'll be the one under there, not you. There'll be plenty of shade, and possibly fungus to stare at. It sounds perfect."

"Why don't you just amuse me and come up with a 'plan two'?"

Rose let out an involuntary laugh. "That's how I got into this situation in the first place."

Dominique gave her a stern look.

"Fine, fine! I guess long term I want to know what he's really thinking. And short term I want to pretend none of this ever happened. I just don't know how to do either. Short of going right up to him and asking 'Scorpius, what are your real feeling for me, and why are you doing all these things', I've got nothing. I'm not Lily, I can't just do anything and say whatever's on my mind. My parents are the Gryffindors, not me, remember?"

"Of course I know. I'm here with you, aren't I? And what are we? Ravenclaws! We don't need to resort to the direct approach, how unimaginative! We're going to out-think these circumstances. You're clearly too close to the situation to do this on your own, and that's why I'm here to help you."

Rose smiled at her cousin and pulled her into a tight embrace. "Thank you" she whispered fiercely.

Dominique squeezed her back and pulled away. "Right, first thing's first. Tomorrow. You're going to play it cool. Pretend that nothing's out of the ordinary and everything's dandy. See how he reacts. Report to me at the end of the day, and we'll plan our next move, alright?"

"I don't know if I can manage that, but I'll do my best."

"Good, now let's get some sleep, we're going to need it."

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

 _Be cool, be cool, everything's normal,_ Rose chanted to herself on the way to her Potions class the next morning. Dominique had rolled her eyes at Rose when she refused to attend breakfast. "It'll be bad enough trying to pretend nothing's different with class as a breakwater. There's no way I'm starting the day facing my family with no distractions." Rose had said.

 _You don't_ really _want to be a hermit-rock person,_ Rose tried to convince herself. Picturing herself under a rock like some sort of insect was at least amusing, so she took a deep breath and entered the dungeon.

She spotted Scorpius, and stopped. He was in the middle of some sort of heated whispering with Albus, and so far neither boy had noticed her entrance.

Rose was momentarily distracted from her own issues. She quietly and inconspicuously made her way over to them in order to hear what they were saying.

"Look, I'm sorry okay? But I don't think you're right." "–under control, it's fine." Scorpius was saying.

"It's not," "–know" "–better than you" "–too much" Rose could only just make out parts of Albus' reply.

Rose cleared her throat and both boys looked up at her guiltily.

"Good morning" she said.

Albus opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by the arrival of their professor. He managed a quick "Morning" before making his way over to McGrady.

"What was that about?" Rose asked, glad for a neutral topic to cling to.

"How much did you hear?" Scorpius asked, a little withdrawn.

"Not much, but it's rare for you two to fight, isn't it. I thought you kind of got along."

"We do. It's just… a little disagreement. It's fine, no big deal." Scorpius seemed confident, so Rose let it go.

Thirty minutes later she was thinking that might have been a mistake. Without this new topic to talk about, she was back to chanting "act normal" in her head, but it was clear she was failing. She had already messed up the instructions to her brew twice, and where Scorpius' potion was pink and bubbling, hers was closer to purple sludge.

Scorpius eyed her cauldron skeptically. "Are you alright? You seem… distracted…"

"What? No. I'm fine, everything's fine. It's normal. And fine." Rose cringed internally, and then realized she was cringing externally as well.

Scorpius reached for her hand before she added moonseed (which was poisonous) instead of moondew to her potion.

Rose jerked her hand back in surprise and upended her entire cauldron. Every face turned toward their table and their professor was already making her way over.

"What's happened, are you both alright?" she asked, surveying the scene. Rose and Scorpius both were beside the desk, vanishing the spilled mess.

"We're fine" he replied, "I was distracted today and had a bit of an accident and Rose is helping me clean up, I'm sorry."

"Nobody got hurt, which is good, but they could have. Pay more attention to your potion next time, Mr. Malfoy. As I recall you had a spill last year as well. Try not to let it happen a third time. Get Ms. Weasley to help you for the rest of class and you may still have time to finish, her brew looks perfectly fine so far."

The professor walked away and Rose looked guiltily at Scorpius. "I'm so sorry, you didn't have to do that."

"No, it's fine" he looked over at Albus who was still looking at them. "Let's just hurry up, then we'll go talk, okay?"

"Sure."

The extra work actually seemed to help Rose concentrate. Filling her brain so completely was a good distraction, and she somehow made it through the rest of class without causing any other disasters.

When they were done, they made their way over to the same empty classroom they had used to talk after potions two weeks ago, when this whole situation had begun. Thankfully it was NOT the same empty classroom they had ended up in the night before.

"I'm sorry about last night" Scorpius blurted when Rose had closed the door.

"You're… sorry?" Rose said, not sure if she should feel quite so disappointed.

"No. Yes. Kind of? I think I might have taken things a little too far. I got a bit caught up, and I won't do it again, so you can stop jumping a mile every time I reach for your hand." His face looked conflicted, and concerned, which was new. Rose could hardly remember him being anything other than confident and in control.

"No, it's fine, everything's fine. I knew you weren't being serious." _Though I had kind of hoped…_

"You're clearly not fine, though I can see you're trying to pretend to be. I told you that you were a bad liar" he grinned a bit at that and Rose gave a light chuckle.

"Yes, I remember," she said, and instantly regretted it in the slightly awkward silence that followed.

"…Right. Well, so, like I said, I won't do that again, so, friends?" he held his hand out to her.

Rose didn't know if she was relieved or disappointed, but she took his offered hand.

"Friends," she agreed.


	9. Friends

"Apparently we're _friends_ now," Rose said to Dominique when they were both back in the tower that night.

"You and Scorpius? I thought you were going to play it cool and see what happened, not demand answers from him." Dominique said.

"He saw through that in about five seconds, Dom. You know I can't act to save my life."

"Oh no, what did you do?"

"Nothing drastic, I think I told him I was 'fine' about twenty times and then I spilled my ruined potion all over the place when he touched my hand. He pulled me aside to talk after class."

Rose fidgeted with the hem of her robes.

"And?" Dominique prompted.

"And he said, 'Sorry for snogging your face off, that was a mistake, heat of the moment you know? Won't happen again, let's just be friends, stop being a werido.'"

"He did NOT!"

"Calm down, of course he didn't. He did say he was sorry, and it wouldn't happen again, and let's be friends, though."

"That might actually be a good thing, you know." Dominique said thoughtfully.

"Good? I'm making backwards progress. I went from kissable to just a friend."

"But, you were less than friends two weeks ago," Dominique pointed out. "You went from nothing to friends, that's progress."

"Maybe. But two weeks ago I wasn't caught up in this mess and was making progress at my own pace."

"Progress at your own pace? I thought you said you didn't like him before," Dominique said, face smug.

"Well apparently I'm not completely hopeless with little harmless secrets then." Rose blushed faintly at this admission.

"Ah-ha! What did I tell you right from the start?" Dominique exclaimed.

"Fine! After Christmas Holidays last year he was in my peripheral vision _everywhere_ and I didn't know what to do about it, so I didn't do anything, happy?"

"Yes!"

Rose rolled her eyes at her cousin.

"Anyway, then this mess happened and I knew I was going forward in all the wrong directions, but it was still forward, and now I'm backtracking."

"Oh sweetie, you just said you were doing things all wrong. Maybe backtracking is exactly what you need to do in order to go forward again, the right way."

Rose thought about that for a minute. "I hate that you're right about everything" she said at last.

"It's a curse" Dominique replied.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Rose felt awkward the next day as well, but true to his word Scorpius kept their displays of affection to nothing more serious than hand-holding. Rose fought her disappointment by clinging to her new title of "friend" and knowing things were better that way for them both.

Scorpius pulled back a bit on teasing her, okay he had pulled back _quite_ a bit, but he was still charming and funny and nice to be around. Rose found herself opening up to him a bit more naturally, and by Wednesday she was glad they could still share easy smiles together.

 _This is how it should have been_ , Rose thought _, if I hadn't started this whole mess I should have just started talking to him to find out what makes him smile._

Scorpius left her in the afternoon for Quidditch practice "Can't let those Puffs get the best of us first thing in the year, can we?" he'd said before carefully kissing her on the cheek and making his way to the pitch.

Rose smiled to herself about the kiss, thinking about how it was almost enough, if only she didn't already know what _more_ felt like.

Scorpius' first game was the following Tuesday, Slytherin vs Hufflepuff. At the best of times Ravenclaws didn't usually side with Hufflepuff when it came to Quidditch, so she was really excited to go support Scorpius during the match.

She was so preoccupied thinking about it that, she almost didn't notice Adrien Cooper coming over to where she was.

Rose was in panic mode. Scorpius had just left and nobody else was around.

 _Get a grip_ , she scolded herself, _I have a family full of Gryffindors, it must be in there somewhere. Pretend you're Lily. No, better yet, pretend you're Aunt Ginny._

"Still with Malfoy, huh Weasley? Thought you'd have tossed him aside by now. Isn't that what you do? Lead guys on then throw them away?"

Rose flushed with anger. _The_ nerve _of this guy!_

"What do you want, Cooper?" Rose asked, keeping her voice even.

"Not you" he replied, like it was clever, like she should be upset about it.

Instead, Rose found herself done.

"Good, then move along."

"No, I get to have the last word here. I've been thinking about what you did to me and I want to tell you all about what I think of you now."

"What _I_ did to _you_!?" Rose exclaimed. How dense was this guy? He'd _literally_ been stalking her, and _he_ was the one upset?

"Yeah. I can see now what kind of person you are. I must have been crazy to like you before. You're not even that good looking. I mean really. Just compare yourself to that hot blondish cousin of yours, I bet _she_ knows how to treat a bloke."

That was it. Rose had had enough. She didn't have to sit there and listen to this.

"If you EVER come near any of my cousins I will curse you so hard you'll spend a month in St. Mungo's. Do I make myself clear?"

"Whatever, you don't have it in you. In fact, I think I'll go find her right now."

Under the thought process of "what would Aunt Ginny do?" Rose stood up and pulled out her wand, fire in her eyes. She had only just started to get the hang of nonverbal spells, but her fury guided her magic true. She sent a bat-boogey hex at him that even Aunt Ginny would be impressed by, and he ran away screaming and crying with his face in his hands.

She practically collapsed after that, every ounce of her courage spent.

 _I did it_ , she thought stupidly, _I made him back off, and no one even helped me._

 _And I could do it again_ , she realized. _He's just a person, less than, he's scum. I don't have to be afraid of him._

And she realized that she wasn't, not anymore.

It was like a weight she hadn't even realized was still there had lifted. She'd felt better about her Cooper situation with Scorpius by her side, but she had never truly felt like things were over with him. She did now.

 _I can do it all on my own, wait until I tell Scorpius, he'll be so proud of me!_

Then Rose realized, she didn't want to tell Scorpius. Because if she told him Copper wasn't a problem anymore, what would happen to them? _We'd be "friends" and nothing more, like we should be. I should stop this while I can. But…_

But Rose knew what "more" felt like. It felt like kisses, and warm bodies pressed together, and brain fuzzies. It felt like Scorpius, and she didn't want to let that go.

"I'll tell him," she muttered to herself, " _after_ his Quidditch game. That'll be fine, right?"


	10. Quidditch

If Rose was a bit more fidgety than normal in the week leading up to the Quidditch game, Scorpius obliged her by ignoring it, for which she was greatly relieved. Guilt at not telling him about what had happened between her and Cooper was eating at her, but she just wasn't ready to let go of Scorpius, not yet.

 _Soon_ , she told herself, _after the match today_.

"We _are_ going to watch a Quidditch game this morning, right? What kind of face is that? You love Quidditch."

Rose looked up at the speaker, it was Albus.

"Sorry, I just have some stuff on my mind." She smiled and fell in step with him. "I can't wait to see those Hufflepuffs get the snot beat out of them."

"And root for Slytherin?" Albus joked, "No thanks."

"Hey, I know all about you and Scorpius being secret friends, so don't try that act with me" she said playfully.

"'Secret friends?' Is that what he said?" Albus laughed.

"No, but you know what I mean."

"I guess I do. He's actually a pretty nice guy. Speaking of, though, is everything okay with you and him? You can talk to me you know, I wouldn't say. I'm just a bit concerned about you."

Rose thought about this for a moment and was touched. She and Albus had always been close, being the same age; and beyond the fact that they were cousins, their parents were also friends.

"Thanks Albus, but I'm fine. Really." She hesitated a moment, but then continued. "Actually, and DON'T tell him I said this, I'm surprisingly happy with him. He likes to joke, but there's a real person under all that, you know?"

Albus looked at his cousin thoughtfully, his expression hard to discern. "Well, I guess that changes a few things."

"Huh?"

"Let's try and get good seats. I see Roxanne over there."

Rose focused on her surroundings and realized they were already at the pitch. She followed Albus to their other cousin and settled in.

She looked out at the field, where the players were already gathering, trying to find Scorpius. His pale head made him easy to distinguish, and she followed him with her eyes. His lithe form was perfect for a Seeker. She caught herself admiring the shape of him, and remembering how he had looked jogging with his shirt off the year before. She felt herself blushing.

His eyes scanned the crowd, but if he saw her, she couldn't tell.

Then the game began, and Rose lost her thoughts in the excitement, cheering and booing opposite Albus.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Slytherin had scored their sixth goal, to Hufflepuff's four, when Scorpius suddenly dived.

Rose's eyes darted in front of him, but saw no flash of gold. The Hufflepuff Seeker, a fellow fifth year girl named Arlene, dove after him. Scorpius pulled up and Arlene stopped short, just missing a bludger flying by and getting a bit off balance. Scorpius started flying in lazy circles once again.

Rose wondered if he'd seen the snitch at all, or had just been faking. Then she realized she could simply ask him after the game and smiled to herself.

The Hufflepuff chasers managed to tie the score seventy to seventy and Rose was getting concerned. The Slytherin Keeper seemed a bit off his game, and she knew it would be up to Scorpius to catch the snitch before they lost too many more goals.

She focused her attention back on him, and saw his brow furrowed in concentration. He easily wove in and out of the action, darting past chasers and dodging the odd bludger.

 _What's he doing?_ Rose wondered when he fell in behind a Chaser on his team.

The Chaser had possession of the quaffle, and was speeding toward the Hufflepuff goals. He sent the quaffle flying through the right goal moments before Scorpius dove through the left. The Hufflepuff Keeper, momentarily confused by which side to protect, had stayed in the center.

"TEN POINTS TO SLYTHERIN, BRINGING THE TOTAL SCORE TO SLYTHERIN 80, HUFFLEPUFF 70. NO! WAIT! MALFOY'S HOLDING UP HIS ARM, HE'S GOT THE SNITCH! THAT'S 150 POINTS TO SLYTHERIN AND THE END OF THE GAME FOLKS! FINAL SCORE: SLYTHERIN 230, HUFFLEPUFF 70. SLYTHERIN WINS!" the announcer blasted from the booth.

Rose was jumping up and down, cheering. He'd done it, he'd gotten the snitch! It must have been hiding just behind the Hufflepuff goal, and he had managed to help their team get an extra ten points right at the end by distracting the Hufflepuff Keeper.

Slytherin supporters were swarming the field, cheering, as the team came in to land. Scorpius had been lifted off his feet by his team's Beaters to be propped up on their shoulders, arm raised and still clutching the golden snitch.

Rose had been hanging on to Albus as she jumped and cheered, and now she dragged him over to the pitch with her to congratulate Scorpius in person.

"You did it!" she called up at him.

His head turned to her at the sound of her voice. They locked eyes and he grinned. It was just so Scorpius that Rose found herself grinning back. For the first time in a week she wasn't feeling awkward or guilty, she was just happy and excited.

Scorpius hopped off the shoulders of his teammates, handing the snitch to one of the Beaters, and rushed over to her. Before she knew what was happening his hands were around her waist and she felt herself being lifted up into the air. Scorpius spun her around and around.

Rose was laughing. "Stop, stop! You're making me dizzy!"

"More so than usual?" he teased. But he stopped spinning.

He was still holding her up and she smiled down at him. The grin suddenly froze on Scorpius' face as he looked up at her. He looked hesitant; as if he'd caught himself doing something he wasn't supposed to do.

Rose realized this was the most contact they'd had since Halloween, and knew his hesitation must be related to their "friends" conversation.

Still, he didn't let her go. They locked eyes in a weird sort of limbo, and Scorpius leaned his head closer to hers by just a fraction of inch before he stopped again.

Rose didn't think, she just leaned down the rest of the way and kissed him.

For a fraction of a second he was still, and then he returned the kiss. Rose felt the satisfaction rising up inside of her. She decided, like she had on Halloween, to let the worrying and complications be for later. Kissing Scorpius felt _right_ , somehow, so she let herself enjoy it.

He spun her around one more time before setting her down all the way and breaking their kiss. The beginnings of a genuine smile were tugging at his lips when his teammates pulled him away.

"Common mate, not all of us are in relationships, so quit rubbing it in. Snog your girlfriend later, we won! Let's go celebrate!"

Rose gave a half laugh as he was literally carried away from her, his face one of shock and concern. She turned and found Albus still there.

"Well, I guess he can't hang out right now," she said, looping her arm through her cousin's. "Let's get some lunch, I'm starved!"

If Rose noticed that Albus was a bit quieter than normal on their way back, she didn't comment on it; and if Albus was thinking about something in particular, he kept his thoughts to himself.


	11. Coming Clean

It had been two weeks since Slytherin won their Quidditch match against Hufflepuff. Scorpius had given Rose a blow-by-blow after the match of all the things she might not have known: like how the Slytherin Keeper had been ill but insisted on playing, or how Hufflepuff would have won if their Seeker had noticed the snitch behind her instead of diving after Scorpius' feint.

Scorpius was back to teasing her again, and Rose thought it felt almost like it had when they had first started going out. _Pretending to go out_ , she corrected herself.

Somehow or another she still hadn't told Scorpius about her encounter with Cooper. Every day she promised herself she would bring it up, she would end their fake relationship and try and build a new one. And every day Scorpius smiled at her and she told herself it could wait until tomorrow.

Some days it was just so easy to forget she wasn't actually dating Scorpius. When they were together it just all seemed so real. Surely he couldn't be _that_ good at pretending all the time, right?

Other days, it was impossible for Rose to forget everything was just pretend. Her need to understand his motives drove her crazy. Either he actually liked her, or he felt nothing for her and was just helping her as a friend, or he was secretly messing with her. Rose was slowly giving up the notion of the last option. She had come to know him well enough by now to know that wouldn't be the case (Definitely. Probably. Hopefully.)

In any case, she needed to tell him about Cooper, end this charade, and move on. Weather that was with Scorpius or not would be up to him.

Rose was filled with determination.

But two weeks turned into three. And three weeks had almost turned into four. There were only two more weeks until the start of Winter Holidays, and Rose knew things couldn't go on as they were.

Part of her was itching to wait until the last second, to tell him just as she was about to leave. Then she could avoid her problems for two more weeks, and that sounded wonderful. But she knew that was unfair to Scorpius. And that was really the heart of the matter.

At this point, Rose almost felt like she was tricking Scorpius into dating her ( _Pretending to date!_ she reminded herself for the hundredth time). And that wasn't right. If she ever wanted Scorpius to care about her for real then she needed to come clean, and soon.

So, when she found herself alone in the library with Scorpius later that day, she steeled herself for the conversation that had been a long time coming. Rose took a deep breath.

"Hey, can we talk?"

Rose faltered. It had been Scorpius saying those words.

"Um, yeah, sure. I… no, you go first, I have something to say as well though." She replied. _Smooth_ , she scolded herself in her head.

"Oh, well, it's just, you seem extra distracted lately, and I thought we were okay, but now I'm not sure, and I guess I wanted to know if everything was alright with you?" He sounded so earnest, so concerned. Rose knew she needed to confess, even if it meant losing everything.

"Right, that's what I wanted to talk about as well. I wasn't sure the best way to bring this up, and I let things go a bit too long, and then it got even more awkward, so I didn't know how to mention…"

She stole a glance at him and cringed with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, I'm saying this all wrong. A few weeks ago, while you were at Quidditch practice, Cooper cornered me and-"

"That bastard! What did he do? I'm so sorry! I'll jinx the crap out of him, I'll-"

"No, no! He didn't do anything! Well he was vulgar and vile, but he started talking about how he was going to go after Dominique, and I just lost it. I set a bat boogey hex right at his face and he sorta ran off crying…"

"That's amazing! He deserved it. You shouldn't be feeling guilty about that, good riddance, I say."

"It did feel sort of amazing." Rose smiled. "But I realized that I can handle him, on my own, I don't need…" She trailed off, _Oh no, that's not how I meant to say that._

"Oh… Oh. Right, of course. This. Of course you don't. You just needed to learn to stick up for yourself. And you have, so, good. I mean, this whole thing was a sham anyway, so no harm done."

Scorpius smiled at her and Rose didn't know what to say. It was everything she hadn't wanted to happen. He had really been pretending the whole time. Pretending about everything. _I'm such an idiot._

"Yeah," she started cautiously, "that's what I was getting at. I guess there's not really a need for… this… anymore." _Stupid! Stupid! That's not what you want to say! Tell him you like him! Tell him you love his crooked smile and how he makes you laugh! Tell him you don't want this to stop! Tell him you want to snog his face off! No, don't tell him that, but the rest!_ _Tell him something!_

But seeing Scorpius' calm composure made Rose hesitate. He didn't seem upset at all. And if he wasn't upset about the possibility of "breaking up", didn't that mean he didn't care about "going out" with her?

"Right then. That settles that." He said, matter-of-factly. "Let's talk details, how should we do this? The timing's pretty good, almost Holidays. I'm staying here this year and I think you always go home, so we won't have to deal with the train, and people will forget about all the gossip going around with the time off. Do you want to have a big public fight? I'm just kidding, I know you don't. I'll just stop hanging around you all the time and eventually everyone will figure it out. Oh, I should go find Albus so he knows to sit by you in potions tomorrow."

Scorpious smiled at Rose again, expectantly. She forced herself to smile back.

"Sure, that sounds fine, I guess."

"Great, well, I'll just go find Albus, and I'll see you around. I'm really proud of you, about Cooper, by the way."

And then he gathered up his things and was gone.

Rose sat there, dumbfounded. This was not the way she had expected things to go. Somewhere along the way she had convinced herself that Scorpius had developed real feelings for her, like she had for him, and that somehow it would all work out. She'd tell him about Copper and he'd say they didn't need excuses anymore. And then it would be real. And she could laugh with him and talk with him and kiss him and hold his hand, just because. Not to fool other people, but because it made her happy.

And now she was sitting by herself.

She made her way back to the Ravenclaw tower in a daze. People were staring at her as she passed, and she realized there were tears falling down her cheeks. But she didn't care, didn't even bother to wipe them away.

She went into the common room, walked straight past Dominique (who got up and opened her mouth), climbed the stairs to her dorm, pulled the curtains shut around her bed, and sobbed into her pillow until she ran out of tears.


	12. The Hogwarts Express

Rose wrapped herself in fake cheer the next two weeks. She laughed as she ate meals with her friends and family, she smiled when Albus, and not Scorpius, sat next to her in class. She even managed to wave cheerfully to Scorpius as he passed her in the hallways. That part was the most difficult, the most heartbreaking. But just because they were no longer "dating" didn't mean they were no longer friends.

She was determined to fake her way through her sorrow until it passed. After all, Scorpius had done nothing but help her, her feelings were not his fault. But she couldn't quite bring herself to talk with him, or treat him like she had. And it was almost too easy to avoid him most times. So their interactions dwindled to friendly waves, and Rose used all of her strength to keep from falling apart.

Albus, bless him, didn't pry, but he did seemed concerned. Someone who didn't know Rose very well might not be able to see through her charade, but anyone who interacted with her and knew her just a little could tell she was trying much too hard.

They all seemed to be taking their cues from Albus and Dominique, however, and everyone let her pretend, even though they all knew it was a lie. And she was grateful for it.

The day after her "break-up" she had come downstairs to find Dominique. Dom hadn't said anything, she had just pulled Rose into a crushing hug and let Rose talk.

Rose had managed to get through most of the conversation with minimal tears, still spent from the night before. Afterwards, Rose had smiled at her cousin and said, "I'm going to be okay."

They both knew it was true, but that didn't make it hurt any less in the meantime. Dominique had given her one last squeeze, and Rose began her charade. "I'm going to fake it until eventually it won't be fake anymore." She had said, and that had been that.

In those last weeks, Rose threw herself into her schoolwork, and began to knit incessantly. She found the busier she was, the easier things seemed. She had decided that everyone in her family would get a scarf from her this year, a tall order. Her mother had taught Rose how to knit the muggle way, and her grandmother had taught her how to knit with magic. Rose found that knitting one scarf by hand and one by magic simultaneously was about the limit of her concentration, which she appreciated.

When it was time, she packed up everything but her knitting for the train ride home. She set her luggage to float behind her as she made her way to the train. She still had one set of knitting needles clacking along next to her, but the pair in her hands were still as she maintained her luggage and navigated the halls.

She turned a blind corner and smacked into something solid and familiar.

"Sorry I didn't see- oh, Rose, hey." It was Scorpius, smiling down at her.

Her heart thumped in her ears.

"Hi, sorry, I wasn't paying attention…" The knitting needles floating at her side had stopped and her luggage sagged a few inches.

Scorpius glanced at her hands, her luggage, and the extra scarf beside her. "No wonder you didn't see me, doing all that. I saw Dominique out by the carriages already, I thought you two would have left together."

"I had a few extra things to pack so she went on ahead. I was heading out to her now."

"Well, try not to be too distracted the rest of the way, the next bloke you bump into might not be as gentlemanly as I am." He gestured above them. "Have a good Holiday, Rose." He walked away.

Rose stood there for a moment, confused. Then she looked up. Mistletoe. She had been standing under a mistletoe with Scorpius, and he'd noticed, and hadn't done anything.

Of course he hadn't, what was she expecting?

That he would have kissed her? His hand slipping into her hair and her body pressed against his as his lips gently moved over hers and…

She gathered the loose ends of her thoughts and sighed. _Smiles, Rose._ Plastering on a fake smile, she started her knitting once again and continued on her way.

Once they were safely on the Hogwarts express Rose excused herself to meet with other prefects. On a normal train ride Scorpius would have been there too, but she supposed he was doing his own version of prefect duty back at the castle among the other students who had stayed behind.

Once her shift was over she returned to her carriage with Dominique, who was not alone. Hugo was sitting next to her, Albus had finished his own duty, and James and Lily had also joined them along with Roxanne.

"Well, well, looks like we've got almost a full house here" she said, squeezing between her brother and Dominique.

"Louis is off with Fred, Lorcan, and Lysander, the little troublemakers" Dominique said. "I can't wait until Lucy comes next year, she usually stops the worst of their antics before it's too late."

"And Molly has already been home a week, the traitor." Added Lily with no malice in her voice. "Can you believe Beauxbatons gets a whole extra week of Christmas Holidays? It's not fair, I tell you!"

"You could have applied to be an exchange student as well, you know." Rose said.

"My French was never very good anyway, besides, they only have two school Quidditch teams, not enough variety. It would be nice to see Aunt Gabrielle, though."

"You only say that because you've never spent the summer with her" Dominique pipped in. "Victorie completely abandoned me to sneak off and see Teddy, so I was stuck with just her and Louis for weeks."

Rose suppressed a small smile. She remembered that summer. Dominique had written to her almost every day complaining about how Gabrielle had made her spend all of her time with Louis and she couldn't do anything by herself. It had made her stir crazy.

She found that every smile she faked was becoming more and more genuine as the train moved along. It wasn't that her heart was any less broken, it was just that she was surrounded by people she loved and their playful bickering was both familiar and comfortable.

She was feeling better than expected when the train finally pulled into Platform 9¾. She had managed to finish two more scarves (only six more to go!) and put her work away during the hustle and bustle of gathering luggage and filing off the train.

Rose craned her neck once they had all made it onto the platform, scanning the crowd of people for her parents or other assorted aunts and uncles. Finally she spotted some red and practically ran over to where her father was.

"Dad!" she cried as she threw herself into his embrace.

"Rosie!" her father pulled her into a crushing hug. She looked over at her mother, who was hugging Hugo about as tightly as their father hugged her. Hugo was squirming.

"Moooooom, stop!" he said.

But Rose knew he was secretly happy, and their mother knew it too. Hermione winked at Rose as Ron let her go and then pulled her daughter into a hug as well.

"I missed you guys" Rose said.

"We missed you too, sweetheart" her mother replied.

Rose looked over her mother's shoulder and saw James, Albus, and Lily receiving similar treatment from their own mother.

"Albus!" Ginny Potter cried out, "I can't believe you, how could you do this me! Coming home and being taller than your own mother! What is the world coming to?"

"I was taller than you already last year!" Albus protested, and it was true. Ginny Potter was many things, but "tall" had never particularly been one of them.

"Oh hush, I just want to exclaim over how much you've grown while you've been gone."

"Where's dad?" Lily asked, looking around.

"We thought there'd be quite enough of a commotion as is, so he's waiting for us at home. Let's not make him wait too long, he's missed you all terribly."

Ginny looked over at Rose and smiled with a wave. "We'll see you all at dinner!" she called.

Rose looked around to see the platform thinning out. The rest of her friends and family were similarly having happy reunions. She turned back to her parents, ready to go home.

"Alright," her mother began, "everyone all set?"

"Looks like it," her father replied. "Let's go home," her father turned to her, "and then we can have a discussion about your new boyfriend."

Rose felt her heart stop. "Wait… what!?"


	13. Witch Weekly

Rose stumbled out of the fireplace after her family. "Dad, WHAT are you talking about?" she asked, catching up to him. Neither of her parents had made any more comments to her about her supposed "boyfriend" on the way to the nearest Floo connection.

"There was a rather interesting article in Witch Weekly last week, you know. Complete with pictures." Her father said this in a tone that gave away nothing. He merely handed her the magazine in question and watched her read.

"Page eleven, dear" her mother helpfully supplied.

Rose flipped to the correct page and was confronted with a giant picture of herself being spun around on a Quidditch pitch while kissing Scorpius Malfoy. She watched her self spin and be gently set down over and over again, brain short-circuiting, when she remembered there was an entire article to read.

A large part of her didn't want to know what it said. She came from a family that was considered to be filled with a bunch of war heroes, and her uncle was Harry Freaking Potter. Rose knew her fair share of gossip column dirt, and indeed had been on the receiving end of articles like this a few times in the past, but she had never paid them any mind. She had simply never cared, or needed to care. The people she loved knew her, and knew what was true; so all the rest had been annoyances at worst, and hilarious at best.

Albus, for instance, was once referred to as a "dark magic doppelgänger" of his father who was apparently secretly trying to take over the wizarding world by throwing socks at people. Everyone had gotten a big kick out of that one. The truth was simply that Albus had chucked a few balled up socks at some reporters who had been following him one day while he was shopping.

This time, however, Rose knew she was going to have some explaining to do. Her family wouldn't have believed a word of the article, obviously, but she knew they would expect the truth from her, and that was going to be awkward. In order to sort out what needed to be explained, she took a breath and began to read.

 _Exclusive scoop! It has come to the attention of the Wizarding World that one Rose Weasley, niece of Harry Potter and daughter of Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger-Weasley, is now dating Scorpius Malfoy, son of former Death Eater Draco Malfoy, next heir to the Malfoy estate._

 _Is Rose betraying everything her uncle and parents fought for by embracing pureblood ideologies, OR is she being imperioused? Either way she has clearly gotten mixed up in some Dark magic. Some are even saying she may already be pregnant with the reincarnation of you-know-who himself._

 _Neither family was available to comment on the relationship, so we can all only guess at this point what's really going on behind closed doors._

"… WHAT!?" Rose exclaimed, "I'm not… we haven't even… WHAT!?"

"Oh sweetie, we know it's a load of rubbish" her mother assured her, "But the picture seems genuine. How long _have_ you been dating Scorpius? And I do hope he's not much like his father was or I may question your tastes."

"I'm, we're not… we broke up. Kind of. It's complicated. There were circumstances. He's very nice, you know. In a kind of annoying way. I'm explaining this all wrong."

"Lemmie see," Hugo said, snatching the magazine from Rose. "Oh, ew. I already have to see them snogging all over school, I don't want to see it at home too." He closed the magazine and set in on a nearby table.

Rose glared at her brother. "Oh shut up, you. You don't even know the whole story."

"We'd love to hear the whole story if you'd like to tell us, love, but it's up to you." Hermione said.

"We just want to know what's going on in your life, before we read about rubbish like that in the gossip column," Ron added.

Rose figured now would not be the best time for the full version of her story, so she simplified a little while sticking close to the truth.

"We were dating, but I didn't know how serious he was about me. We broke up a few weeks ago, but I'm hoping it was a misunderstanding because I still like him."

She looked expectantly at her parents.

Her mother smiled at her. "Well, then I hope you two make up, and if his parents ever do or say anything to you, tell us immediately. We'll always be in your corner, no matter what. Now go get unpacked and ready to leave again, we're all having dinner at the Burrow."

"Thank you." Rose said when her parent's didn't pry. She hugged them and went to her room with her luggage. It looked just how she'd left it, with a Cannon's poster over her bed and a mess on her desk. She smiled to herself, glad to be home.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Dinner was always an affair at her grandparent's home, the Burrow. Her father was one of seven children, and they always made room for various friends and godchildren. The first night back she went through a familiar conversation about her intentions towards Scorpius Malfoy. To her family's credit they took it in stride and let the subject drop. By the end of the night she was even able to laugh about it with Dominique and Albus.

"Pregnant! Can you believe it?" she giggled.

"Unfortunately I can," said Albus. "You should just hear how many witches claim James, or even I, got them pregnant. And it doesn't happen as much anymore, but according to mom it was even worse with dad when they were younger."

"You?" Dominique laughed. "Shows how good of a journalist they are."

"What, didn't you know?" Albus said, "When I'm not an evil sock throwing monster I'm quite a ladies man apparently."

"Quite an accomplishment for someone who only flirts with cute boys." Rose said with a smile.

"Eh, it's a talent." Albus winked. "Speaking of gossip and cute boys, Rose, why did you break up with Scorpius? I know you were only dating for pretend, but you said he made you happy."

Rose sighed. "It was kind of an accident, I fumbled my words a bit, and then he said I was right, we should stop pretending, and didn't care at all. He just smiled at me like we were still good friends and then went- wait a second, I never said we were only dating for pretend. I only told that to Dominique!"

Rose narrowed her eyes at her younger cousin.

"Don't look at me!" Dominique said, "I didn't tell him."

They both looked at Albus.

"Well, Scorpius might have mentioned something, but I won't tell you much, it's not my place. You should hear it from him. I know he seems confident all the time, but honestly it's usually just a front. At first I thought he was just messing with you, so I confronted him about it, but I then I saw how much _you_ liked _him_ , so I think you should try and give it a shot, for real this time."

Rose's mouth had fallen open.

"And the sooner the better, really. I was making some good progress with McGrady before we switched back to our original seats in Potions. But he's a shy one, so it's going to take a little more work."

Albus didn't even flinch under the stare of his two cousins.

"Well," said Dominique, popping a hand under Rose's chin and tapping her mouth closed, "there you go then." She looked expectantly at Rose.

Rose's brain was going about a million kilometers per hour. If Albus was telling her she should try again with Scorpius, did that mean Albus thought Scorpius had feelings for Rose too? It probably did, he wouldn't encourage her if he thought she had no hope.

She had wanted to try and patch things up with Scorpius anyway. Of course, her solution had been more along the lines of "stop being awkward around him, then start talking to him again, then things will magically fall back into place… somehow". But now…? Did she have the guts to declare her feelings for him directly and see what happened?

She would need an excuse, she knew that. Some reason other than, "Hey, I think I really like you". Not that that wasn't a good enough reason on its own, but Rose was just facing facts, she had never been good at the direct approach. Her brain would stall and her mouth would panic and she needed something to babble about until her brain caught up.

"A present" she said at last, to the confused faces of Albus and Dominique.

"Uh, what? Was that some weird attempt to change the topic? Because that was bad, sweetie, even for you."

"No," Rose said, "I'm going to get him a Christmas present and use it as an excuse to talk to him."

Dominique smiled at her while Albus shook his head good-naturedly. "You never could just do something directly, could you?"

"Nope," Rose assured him, "I always need to have a plan, and I think I've got one now. Where's your mom? I'm going to need her help."

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

 **Note from the author:**

 **Holy cow! I can't believe I have 100 followers for this story. I'm completely floored, thank you all so much for the follows, faves, and comments, they really mean a lot to me.**

 **I've been trying hard to write a few chapters ahead so that I can release them fairly consistently, but I'm all caught up as of here, and have finals coming up next week, so I'm not sure how soon I'll get the next one out, but I'm hoping it'll still be around a week like all the others.**

 **Things are about to wrap up here, only one or two more chapters to go before the end. I've never written or posted anything before, so I just wanted to say thank you to everyone one more time. I for sure would have given up on this forever ago without your encouragement and support.**

 **Here's this chapter a few days earlier than I planned to celebrate 100 followers! 3**

 **(Also it's come to my attention that there a few formatting issues with my story, certain things [like stars to indicate a location change] don't translate well from Word documents to format apparently, so I'm going to try and fix those too.)**


	14. The Beginning

_Stop fidgeting,_ Rose scolded herself for the hundredth time. _You've practiced this a million times in your head, it'll be fine._

Winter holidays had come and gone and Rose was back on the Hogwarts Express, heading towards school, and towards Scorpius. Despite her preoccupation with Scorpius and the Witch Weekly article over break, Rose had had a good vacation. She had been able to relax and enjoy her time with her family.

The train had almost reached its destination and Rose looked down at the bundle in her lap. Her Aunt Ginny had come through in spades once she had explained the whole situation and what she wanted. Somehow, telling her aunt the truth was easier than telling her parents. Aunt Ginny had always enjoyed a little bit of mischief and had never been one to judge someone based on rumors. She had simply listened to Rose's story and said, "Well, if he's a Harpies fan then he's got good taste. What did you have in mind?"

The train came to stop at Hogsmeade Station and Rose filed into a horseless carriage with her brother and some cousins. Sometime in the next few days, before classes began again, Rose needed to think of a way to casually run into Scorpius and speak with him alone. Even though she had been encouraged by Albus' words, she was still filled with doubt. What if Albus had misunderstood and Scorpius didn't like her after all?

She shook her head against those thoughts. At least she would have tried her best. She'd never be able to live with herself if she just gave up without trying at all. One of her hands found its way into Dominique's grasp and she felt her cousin and best friend give her hand a squeeze. Dominique believed in her, and that filled her heart with courage.

The carriages came to a stop in the courtyard in front of the castle and Rose smiled. As much as she loved being home with her family, Hogwarts was special, her home away from home, and she was glad to be back.

Releasing Dominique's hand she gathered up the package in her lap and stopped short. Scorpius Malfoy was standing in the courtyard, and he was looking right at her.

She felt their eyes meet, felt that electric spark shiver down her spine, and almost faltered. Almost. Dominique and Albus both gave her a tiny shove and she straightened her spine. Through willpower alone she forced her eyes away from the ground, where they wanted to rest, and kept her head up. Scorpius made his way slowly over to her, and she matched him step for step.

"Hey Rose, can we talk? I don't know if you saw, I mean I'm sure you must have- Obviously you know it's all rubbish, but I was worried about your family- um I mean, there was an article, and-" he groaned, "this is all wrong. I'm trying to say that if you need me to set anyone straight I will. I'll talk to your parents or whoever and I'll stay away from you from now on, so you don't have to worry about anything."

Stay away from her? That was the last thing Rose wanted. Seeing Scorpius so far outside his usual calm and jokingly cocky demeanor was almost funny to Rose. Usually she was the huge mess and he was the one keeping his cool. The absolute worry in his eyes, however, made her feel oddly calm. It was so clear that he cared about her, at least in _some_ capacity, that for the first time in weeks she felt like she could believe in the small hope that had been growing in her heart.

"Slow down" she said, pleased at how evenly her voice came out. "Let's talk. See you all later, ok?" she added to her family. Dominque nodded encouragingly and Albus looked like he was trying not to laugh behind a hand over his face.

A slightly uncomfortable silence followed them as they made their way through the halls together. Eventually they came across an area unaffected by the hustle and bustle of students returning from the Holidays.

"Everything's fine, you know" Rose said once they were alone. "My family gets dragged through the gossip columns all the time, nobody in my family would ever believe something they read over something they heard from each other directly."

"The picture-" Scorpius began. "They probably didn't just ignore that, though. Even I got an owl from my parents over it. They said they'd refused to answer any reporters about it, but I did get in a little trouble for my, how did mom put it? 'Lack of discreetness in my personal relations'. I didn't know what to tell them because I hadn't talked with you first, and I didn't want to say anything without you knowing about it before hand."

"Oh. That's very nice of you, tell them whatever you want though, I wouldn't want to cause an argument between you and your parents." Rose considered her next question before cautiously asking, "Um, did they say something about me, personally?"

"No, no. Why? Did your parents? Say something about me, I mean." He asked casually enough, but Rose thought she could sense some apprehension in his tone.

"No, actually, they said they trusted my judgment." She gave a little laugh at the memory.

"Well of course they do, you're amazing," there was a slight pause before Scorpius continued, "I mean, not as amazing as me, of course, let's face it. But, sadly, we can't all be perfect…"

Rose laughed outright at that. It had been so long since things had been comfortable enough between them for Scorpius to joke around with her. Seeing he'd made her laugh, Scorpius gave her that lopsided grin she'd come to love and, for a moment, they were happy just smiling at each other.

Scorpius cleared his throat and looked away first. "Right, well, just wanted to let you know I'm here if you need help, but it seems things are under control, so, I'll just, um-"

Rose felt their easy atmosphere start to crumble and her nerves started to come back. _Deep breath, you can do this!_

"I got you a present?" Rose mentally cringed that it had come out as a question.

"What?" he glanced down at the bundle in her hands that she was now holding out to him. "Thank you. I, uh, actually got you something too, but I didn't know if I should give it to you. I don't have it with me but it was meant to be a sort of apology."

"Apology? For what?" In all her scenarios Rose hadn't imagined Scorpius would have a present for her as well, or that he'd be trying to apologize. She felt her doubts creeping in. Was he apologizing because he'd figured out that she liked him and he couldn't return her feelings?

"What do you mean for what? I was completely using you to the point where you didn't even know how to break up with me. You wanted my help and I was taking advantage-"

"Wait what?" Rose interrupted him. " _You_ were using _me_?" She shook her head "No. _I_ was using _you_. All you've done is help me and put up with me and humor me. I'm trying to thank you and apologize to _you_."

"Oh Rose, you're way too nice and trusting for your own good. After everything I did to you, how can you still trust me?"

"What are you talking about?" Rose asked, more confused than ever.

"I mean, ugh, ok. In the Three Broomsticks, after we went costume shopping? And after the Halloween party, and then after the Quidditch match, and I kept following you everywhere…"

Those had been all the times they'd kissed.

"But, Cooper was there, and I would have messed everything up after Halloween, and-"

"Copper wasn't there." Scorpius said.

"What?"

"And Halloween would have turned out fine either way. And I was just seeing what I wanted to see after the game."

"I don't understand. If Cooper wasn't there, then why did you say he was? Why did you kiss me?" Rose felt like the ground had fallen away and everything was spinning. She didn't understand what Scorpius was trying to tell her.

"Because I've liked you forever, and I wanted to, but I shouldn't have. I just couldn't help myself. And then I panicked because you were just pretending, and I was supposed to be helping you, so I lied. But it was everything I ever wanted, and you were so easy to persuade, I convinced myself that you had feelings for me after all, even though I knew it was the worst lie. I kept telling myself. And Albus warned me after Halloween that I was taking things too far, but I was so far gone, I didn't want to listen.

"And then I saw how you were acting, and knew I was wrong. So I tried pulling back, but I couldn't find it in me to just let you go.

"But you did. You found your courage all on your own. And instead of helping you, I'd been purposefully holding you back. It was all I could do to smile and say everything was fine when you wanted to end it, so I ran away as fast as I could.

"I've hurt you in so many ways Rose, and you never even saw it. The opportunity to be with you literally fell into my lap, and I snatched it up and twisted it around to try and never let it go. But I was wrong from the start.

"I don't expect you to ever forgive me, but I just needed to come clean and say I was sorry."

Rose couldn't think. She could hardly breathe. It had all been a lie, which was everything Rose had been afraid of, and yet- could she have possibly understood him? She clung desperately to part of what he had said that was filling her with wicked joy.

"You… liked me? I don't understand, since when?"

Scorpius sighed. "For about a year now. After you forced that Pepper-Up Potion on me. Nobody else even noticed I was sick, but you had. I started to watch you after that. I saw how happy you were studying and taking care of others, how pretty you were when you smiled at your friends. I started thinking about you all the time after that. I even started trying to get your attention in roundabout ways. But I doubt you ever noticed."

"My hair got caught in your button…" Rose said, almost a whisper.

"Uh, yeah, I pretended to bump into you, but the hair part was an accident. When I saw it there I just really wanted to touch it, so I used my fingers to untangle it instead of my wand."

"I helped you clean up your spilled potion." Rose said, not believing her own ears.

"I spilled it on purpose when you were next to me. I knew you'd stop to help me because, like I said, you're too nice for your own good."

"I fell asleep on you in the library." She went on, remember being on the other end of this conversation months ago with Dominique.

"You fell asleep in the library. I told Albus that Professor Longbottom was looking for him and then I sat next to you. I put your head on my shoulder myself, then played it off as an accident when you woke up later."

Scorpius was getting redder as they talked, and more dejected looking too. But Rose's whole world was falling on its head.

"Also, you probably didn't notice we were there, but my team was running laps last summer and I saw you on the grounds. I thought I might catch your attention if I ran my laps without my shirt on, but that was just me being conceited."

Rose couldn't bear it anymore, she began to laugh until she cried. Scorpius looked up in concern. He probably thought he had repulsed her so much it had broken her. He hovered around her uncertainly as tears fell down her face and she just laughed and laughed.

The relief she felt was like a string of tension that had been suddenly cut. She couldn't stop the tears or the laughter, and now Scorpius probably thought she was a crazy person. She finally found the breath to talk.

"Oh man, I'm so stupid. _You're_ so stupid. What idiots we are. Everything got so mixed up neither one of us could tell what the truth was anymore. I know you're feeling terrible right now, but I'm just so relieved."

"Relieved? I don't understand, aren't you furious at me?" he asked.

"Oh definitely, but I like you so much I don't even care. I've been agonizing for weeks and weeks trying to figure out if you liked me back, or if you were just trying to be nice. I even clung onto a fake relationship way past when I should have let you go just because I couldn't stand the thought of not being with you anymore, and here you are apologizing to me because you have real feelings for me after all.

"We're both so stupid it's hilarious. If we'd spent half as much time trying to actually talk to one another, instead of trying to trick each other into spending time together, this weird mix up never would have happened."

"How can you possibly still like me after everything I just told you?" Scorpius asked. Hope mixed in his voiced with dread.

"Am I any less guilty? I sent you all kinds of mixed signals and Cooper hadn't been an issue for weeks before I told you about it."

They stared at each other in silence with incredulous expressions.

"What a perfectly disastrous couple we ended up making, huh?" Rose finally said with a small smile.

"Right." Scorpius agreed. "Rose," he began, uncertainly, "I should have just done this from the start. I like you, I think you're wonderful, and beautiful, and kind, and funny. I've liked you for a long time and I want to date you, if you'll have a mess like me."

"Yes" she replied instantly, overcome with giddiness. "Yesyesyes a hundred times yes. I've liked you for a long time too, and I promise I'm an even bigger mess than you are, but if you still want me, I'm your-"

She hadn't even finished talking before Scorpius pulled her to him, crushing her against his chest. She wanted to wrap her arms around him in kind, but was still holding his present between them.

Scorpius reached between them and gently pulled the package out of Rose's hands before setting it on a table beside them. Then he leaned down and kissed her.

The world was exploding in Rose's head. Scorpius's mouth was devouring hers and everything felt right again.

He straightened, lifting her off her feet so as not to break their kiss, and leaned her up against a wall.

She felt his body on hers, pinning her in place, and moaned into his mouth. It was everything she'd ever wanted, plus the 'more' she had so desperately gotten addicted to.

Scorpius pulled back a fraction and sighed her name, "Rose, my Rose…" and then his lips were on her ear, her neck, her throat. Rose's fingers slid into his hair and his hands gripped tighter on her waist. She wrapped her legs around him and pulled him even closer.

Everything felt so right it was hard to stop. Eventually, though, Scorpius pulled away first.

"I can't- we have to stop before- before we're not able to stop anymore." His cheeks were as flushed as hers. She knew he was right, but she wanted to lose herself in him forever.

Rose cleared her throat. "Right, you're right." She slid down the wall behind her and looked up into his eyes. Scorpius grinned at her, and she smiled at him. He put his forehead against hers and they began to laugh.

"Oh," Rose said, remembering, "your present." She looked at where it sat on a table, forgotten.

"You're the best present I could ever have." Scorpius winked at her playfully, but she was pretty sure he actually meant it.

"Go on then, I've been looking forward to your face when you open it."

He walked over to the present and began carefully unwrapping it. He didn't tear a scrap of wrapping paper. When he was done, he looked up at her, smiling.

"Is this for real?" he asked holding up a picture in a frame. It was a group photo of the Holyhead Harpies, signed by all of them. They waved cheerfully at him from within the frame.

"My aunt has a few connection, you know." She smiled at him.

He carefully placed the photo down and pulled out the other item in the package. A bright green scarf.

"Did you make this?" he asked.

"I had some extra yarn, and green's your favorite color." She replied, flushing again.

He set the scarf down carefully as well and pulled her close in another crushing hug. "You know," he said, sliding a hand through her hair, "I've been quite fond of copper lately."

Rose giggled at him and leaned into his embrace, wrapping her own arms around his back and basking in his comfort.

"Dominique's going to throw a fit when I go back and tell her what happened. She's been trying to get us together for ages."

"Smart girl." Scorpius said.

Rose sighed good-naturedly. "She's going to gloat about this forever, you know."

Scorpius lifted her chin to look in her eyes, mischievous grin on his face.

"Then let's give her something to gloat about. After all, I have the perfect fashion accessory now for hiding my neck."

Rose bit her lip and smiled up at him. "You're impossible. You were the one who just said we should stop."

"Did I? That's stupid. Let's never stop."

"Well," Rose said, mischievous grin of her own in place, "I think that can be arranged."


End file.
